(Star Trak)

Third album from The Neptunes and that one other guy

There are two ways to look at a new N.E.R.D. release. Since two-thirds of the band are the hit-making producers The Neptunes, you can choose to see either a bunch of ideas that were too leftfield and out-there for the pop stars who hire the duo to add gloss and perfect drum sounds to their songs, or a bunch of ideas too silly and rubbish for same. The truth is that Seeing Sounds is probably a little from column A and a little from column B. First single Everybody Nose (All The Girls Standing In The Line For The Bathroom) is a collection of cocaine innuendos, even sneezing look atchoo! into a Miami bass chant that oddly turns into a piano crooner halfway. More gleefully dumb lines to shout along with on the dancefloor include “You jump around like you ADHD!” in Anti Matter and “Spaz if you want to / spaz if you want” in Spaz. The guitar that’s absent or downplayed among the robot synth and bucket-drum percussion of their Neptunes tracks continue to flourish here; the boy-band harmonies of Sooner Or Later build up to an epically addle-daddle guitar solo that’s worthy of Van Halen. Once again, a N.E.R.D. album is more interesting as an examination of what’s going inside the head of The Neptunes than as music on its own: lyrics about dancing and girls, pop-rock instrumentation that wouldn’t pass muster anywhere else, only the occasional glimmer of catchiness and fun.

**

JODY MACGREGOR

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